Summer Program

The Cooperative School’s summer day camp, "Tinkering at the Cooperative School" or "Tink," is open to the community for children currently enrolled in kindergarten through 5th grade and does not require co-oping.

Cost: $300/week

Five Tink Sessions to choose from:

Session I: June 17 – June 21Session II: June 24 – June 28Session III: July 8 – July 12 Session IV: July 15 – July 19 Session V: July 22 – July 26

Our play-filled summer program is playfully named Tink, short for Tinkering at the Cooperative School. Cooperative play and collaboration are the foundational underpinnings of Tink and the activities center on doing, creating, and building together. The experience is held in the highest regard. Products and projects are secondary. The campers, ages 5 through 10, build dens, learn to whittle and how to use axes, hammers, saws, tie knots, build fires, and read maps -- in other words, they learn how to work and play together, using real tools, to build things up and tear things down. This is play! This is childhood!

Camp Details:

All camps run from 9:00 am – 1:30 pm. Children bring lunches from home. The camp sessions are staffed by a lead teacher of the Cooperative School and two college-aged camp aides. The session rosters are capped at 18 to 20 children.

Why mixed-age groupings? Our experience has shown that a wide age range instills positive, cooperative, and unique experiences for all our campers, in addition to providing siblings the opportunity to attend camp together.

Why the firm age cut-offs? Our camps seek to balance orchestrated Tink projects with campers’ independent and confident pursuits, while maintaining the safety of all campers and staff. Too great of an age gap between older and younger campers does not allow us to achieve this goal, or create the cohesion that both parents and campers are looking for.

Registration for our Summer program opens on Saturday, February 9, 2019, at 9:00 a.m.

Search the site

The Cooperative School, a not-for-profit corporation, welcomes families of all races, colors, religions and national and ethnic origins without regard to sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.